With our latest case being in DC, it's too easy for Strauss to pull me into a budget meeting while the team is out following leads. Honestly, I'd rather be out with them than dealing with this bureaucratic nonsense, but duty calls at times. Or should I say, sometimes my phone calls me out of the meeting. I glance at the screen, about to hit it to voicemail when I see that it's Sarah calling. Normally her first call is to Emily, so for her to be calling me, she must not be able to reach Emily and it's important.
"I'm sorry, it's my nanny." I say to Strauss before picking up the phone. "Hotchner."
"Aaron it's Sarah. I can't get a hold of Emily, but Nathan fell and busted his head pretty hard in the front. I'm taking him to Inova Fairfax Hospital."
"I'll meet you there." Strauss's eyes meet mine in confusion as I hang up the phone. "My son fell and needs stitches." I explain in the loosest terms. It's not a lie, but it doesn't open the can of worms that it's my relationship with Emily.
"Go. Be there for Jack." She motions towards the door. "We can talk about this later." I grab my jacket and turn towards the door. I'll call Emily from the car. The moment she hears, she'll freak out I can bet. As I make my way towards the door of the bullpen, I can hear Rossi calling my name, but I don't even pause. Nathan needs me.
As I sit in the car on the way to the hospital, I know I have about twenty one minutes to kill, if there's no traffic. The hospital is the closest one to Emily's apartment, but it's not the closest to the FBI building. Hopefully it means that by the time I get there, Nathan might already be getting checked out. I hit the button on my phone to speed dial Emily as I drive. Her phone rings, and rings, and rings, and rings, before flipping to voicemail. "You've reached SSA Prentiss. I can't come to the phone right now, but leave your name, number and a brief message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible."
"Emily, call me. It's important." I'm not going to tell her voicemail that Nathan's hurt. Instead I dial Morgan, since I sent them together. Though they're out interviewing witnesses, I'm hoping at least one of them will answer their phones. After two rings, the phone clicks over.
"Yeah Hotch?"
"Morgan, is Emily there?"
"She's with our witness. What's going on?" Morgan asks.
"It's Nathan. He got hurt."
"Hold on." Morgan's voice turns away from the phone, "Prentiss." She must have done her usual motion the phone away, because a moment later, his voice calls out, "Emily." The phone is passed.
"Hello?"
"Em,"
"Aaron, what," Her voice lowers as she must be walking to a separate room from their witness. "What is going on?"
"It's Nathan."
"What about Nathan?" Her voice is suddenly filled with what can only be described as motherly concern and worry.
"He fell. Busted his head. Sarah is taking him to the hospital."
"What?!"
"That's all I know. I'm headed to meet them right now."
"Is he ok?!"
"Sarah didn't sound too worried. I think he just needs stitches."
"The hospital by the apartment?" Emily is probably already calculating how far she is and how fast she can get Morgan to drive her there.
"Yes. I'm already on my way. I'll be there in less than ten."
"I'm forty minutes out." Emily says, sounding desperate to be closer.
"I'll sit with him until you get there."
"He'll be less scared as long as one of us is there." Emily concedes. "Keep me updated on what's going on?" She asks.
"I will. And Emily?"
"Yeah?"
"Everything is going to be fine."
"Thank you." She says before hanging up. I focus on the road in front of me and soon I'm pulling up in front of the hospital. I walk up to the front desk as calmly as I can.
"My girlfriend's son was brought in with a head injury."
"Name?" The nurse asks.
"Nathan Prentiss."
"He's in room 14. Go through these doors and then make two lefts and a right." He points towards the door I need to walk through to find Nathan. I look at the numbers counting down until I get to number 14, I pull the curtain back and look for the toddler that I want to comfort.
"Hey buddy." I say as I see Nathan sitting on the too big hospital bed. My mind knows that Sarah is in the room too, but my eyes are only looking at my so- Emily's son.
"Boo boo." Nathan cries out. "Owie!"
"It hurts doesn't it." I lightly brush the hair away from the cut on his hairline.
"Daddy hug please." Nathan sobs out, and if it wasn't for the situation, the words from his mouth would bring me such joy.
"Of course," I sit down on the bed and pull him into my lap. A nurse walks into the room.
"Daddy's here for you Nathan?" He nods and leans into me. "Wonderful! Now we do need to do some stitches to get his head to close, want to keep holding him, Dad?"
"Of course." I don't plan on letting Nathan go. He must be so scared and if I can make it better I will. The nurse cleans the wound, numbs it, and then starts stitching up his hairline. "You're being such a brave little man. It's going to be all over soon Nathan." I rub a hand up and down his spine, careful not to jostle him.
"All done." The nurse pulls off the rubber gloves and starts to clean up the supplies from the stitches. "They'll dissolve on their own in a few days. Let me get the papers on how to keep the stitches clean and some discharge paperwork and then you all can be on your way."
"Nathan? Aaron?" Emily's voice comes from down the hallway and suddenly her head is popping through the curtains.
"Mama…" Nathan's voice calls out as he sees her. "Got booboo." He explains in a voice filled with sadness.
"I see. But you're such a brave boy."
"Daddy hugged." Nathan explains from my arms and Emily's smile meets mine.
"Daddy's hugs help booboos." She sits down at the edge of the bed. "How many stitches did he have to get?"
"Six. And they'll dissolve in a few days to leave less of a scar." I catch her up on what she missed. "Now we're just waiting on discharge paperwork and then we can head out." Emily nods and reaches a hand out to caress Nathan's face, looking at the bandage covering the cut. "Where's Morgan?"
"Either still parking the car, or out in the waiting room." Emily shrugs. "What did you tell Strauss?"
"I might have let her think it was Jack that was hurt."
"Jack have no booboo." Nathan says from my arms.
"You're right Nathan." I rub a hand down his spine. "Jack's alright." He leans his uninjured side of his forehead into my chest. "And you're all better now too." My hand rises to smooth his hair down. Emily looks up at Sarah, who's been sitting in the chair across from the bed.
"I'm so sorry. I left my phone in the car when Morgan and I went to interview a suspect. I should have heard the call-"
"It's ok Emily. That's why I have Aaron's number too. Your work is unpredictable at times." Sarah's voice is calm, but I can see that even the calmest of voices won't soothe the guilt that Emily feels. Nathan turns in my arms and reaches for Emily, who immediately scoops him up, holding him close.
"Mama, head hurt." Nathan's voice turns to a whine as he leans into her. She places a kiss above where his stitches are.
"I bet it does baby." Both of us have had stitches too many times to count, but knowing that this sweet little boy is in pain is tough. Especially when there is nothing that either of us can do for him to make it hurt less. He's already been given medicine to help with the pain, but there's only so much his little body can take.
Emily hums as she slightly rocks Nathan, more to calm him than anything else. Or maybe it's to calm her down, I'm not honestly sure at this point. Nathan's hand curls into her blouse and his other hand raises to his mouth so his thumb can seek comfort in between his lips. Mr. Doggie is sitting on the hospital bed in between us, but right now Nathan seems to want the comfort of his mom over the stuffed dog.
"Sarah, if you want to go home, Emily and I can take Nathan home." I say, knowing that neither of us is going to want to go back to the office after this.
"Are you sure?" I nod. "Ok, well I have his car seat in my car." Right, we have the SUVs.
"I'll come with you and get it." I say, wanting to let Emily have a moment alone with Nathan. We walk out into the waiting room, where Morgan spots us.
"How's Nathan?"
"He's ok. They did his stitches already. They're pulling his discharge paperwork." Sarah stands next to me as I relay the news about Nathan. "Derek Morgan, this is Sarah Williams. She's one of our two nannies for the kids." Morgan extends a hand.
"Nice to meet you, sorry it's in these circumstances."
"Same here." Sarah says as she shakes Morgan's hand.
"Emily and I are going to take Nathan home once he's discharged, so if you want to take the other SUV back to the bureau, you can. If you happen to see Strauss, she thinks Jack is the one that got injured."
"I'll pass along the message." The team knows that Strauss doesn't know about Emily and I yet, and are willing to help where they can. "So you and Emily will be back tomorrow?"
"Most likely." I say, knowing there's no real reason for us not to be at work, but wanting to leave an option open just in case. Emily already voiced that she felt bad about not even hearing the call from Sarah, so I want to see where she's at before saying we'll both be back in the office tomorrow. "We're going to grab Nathan's car seat from Sarah's car."
"I'll wait here Hotch. I want to see the little man and make sure he's ok." The whole team thinks of our children as their own nieces and nephews so I'm not surprised that Morgan wants to wait to see Nathan.
"It was nice meeting you Agent Morgan." Sarah says before turning towards the door.
"I'll be right back." I mention to Morgan before following Sarah towards her car. Sarah and Laura don't usually have to take the kids too many places, but this is why we leave their car seats at home. This way if they need it, they're there. He takes the car seat and walks over to the SUV to drop it off. "Thank you Sarah. For taking care of him."
"Hopefully next time, we can avoid the hospital trip all together."
"I think we would all appreciate that. But kids will be kids. This probably won't be the last ER trip in their lives."
"I'll be by in the morning."
"We'll call you if anything changes." I say before turning to walk back to where Emily and Nathan are waiting for me. Hopefully, discharging doesn't take long and they can get back home soon. It'll be dinner time soon, and keeping Nathan on his normal schedule as much as possible would be best. As I walk inside, I see Emily making her way towards where Morgan is, with Nathan still curled into her. Walking over, I lift the diaper bag from her shoulder to carry some of the weight for her.
"Hey, how's this little man doing?" Nathan looks up at Morgan, waving with a little hand, but not wanting to leave his mom. "Hi buddy."
"Uncle Derek!" Nathan's voice has excitement laced through the sleepiness that is coming from the pain medicine.
"He's ok. First big injury, but he hasn't dissolved into a temper tantrum or anything so I'll take the win." Emily says, her hand running up and his back. "I think once he's home with his siblings, everything will feel back to normal."
"Well, I'll head back and let the team know that he's doing fine. They were all pretty worried about him." I had felt my phone blowing up, but was too focused on Nathan to worry about it.
"See you later." Emily says to her usual partner.
"Bye Morgan."
"Bye Hotch. Bye Emily. Bye Nathan." He waves to Nathan who lets a little smile break loose. We watch Morgan head towards the door.
"Ready to head home?" I ask and Emily just nods. We walk towards where the SUV is parked and know that getting home will only take a few minutes. Emily straps Nathan into his carseat and I realize, all of Emily's stuff is at the office. "Do you want me to head back to the bureau so you can get your stuff?" She shakes her head.
"It'll be fine for one night. I have the important things with me. Plus it will be almost 40 minutes with traffic right now to go back." Emily explains as she climbs into the passenger's seat. I understand where she's coming from. "Plus I just want to go home at this point." She glances over her shoulder to look at Nathan, who is trying to blink sleep away from his eyes. "If he falls asleep right now, it's going to seriously screw with bedtime." She grumbles.
"If his meds are making him sleepy, there's not much that will stop him. Plus he'll have another dose before bed, so it might make him sleep just fine." I try to reassure her as I pull onto the street to head home. "Whatever happens, we're in this together. It'll be fine."
